Inquiry set to find that Wayne Astill should never have been employed as corrections officer

The report from a Special Commission of Inquiry into the offending of prison guard Wayne Astill is set to be released publicly.

Prison guard rapist Wayne Astill should never have been allowed to join Corrective Services in 1999 because he had resigned from the NSW Police Force under a cloud years earlier, a bombshell probe is set to find.

The report of a Special Commission of Inquiry into Astill’s offending at Dillwynia Correctional Centre will be released on Wednesday, after it was delivered to Premier Chris Minns last week.

Astill was last year sentenced to a maximum 23 years in prison after being convicted of more than 30 charges, including aggravated sexual assault and indecent assault while working at the northwestern Sydney corrections centre.

The inquiry is set to find that Astill should never have been employed as a corrections officer in 1999 because of allegations made against him in 1996, when he was a Police officer, The Daily Telegraph has been told.

One such claim is understood to involve a female inmate who alleged she was harassed by Astill.

Ex Prison guard Wayne Astill at Downing Centre Court in Sydney in 2022. Picture: NCA NewsWire

Corrective Services Commissioner Kevin Corcoran, who went on leave shortly after giving evidence, told the inquiry that Astill’s employment was “a huge failure,” and if Astill’s record at the NSW Police Force was known he would “never have been employed”.

Mr Corcoran was the assistant commissioner at the time of Astill’s offending. The Telegraph does not suggest wrongdoing on Mr Corcoran’s part.

The probe into Astill’s offending was last year upgraded to a Special Commission of Inquiry, which gives the highest levels of investigative powers available in NSW.

A Special Commission of Inquiry probed the circumstances around Astill’s offending. Picture: NCA NewsWire

The inquiry probed whether any Corrective Services employee had “knowledge or reasonable suspicion” of Astill’s offending, and – if so – what action was taken.

It also investigated what systems of supervision and oversight applied to Astill, the procedures by which inmates or staff could raise complaints about misconduct, and whether any matters arising from the inquiry should be referred to the Independent Commission Against Corruption or the NSW Police Force for further investigation.

Counsel Assisting the inquiry listed a number of “proposed recommendations” in closing submissions last year.

The report was delivered to Premier Chris Minns last week. Picture: NCA NewsWire.

They include that security cameras at the Dillwynia Correctional Centre be upgraded as an “urgent priority,” and ensuring that records of disciplinary processes are kept on an employee’s personnel file that can be accessed within Corrective Services and the Department of Communities and Justice.

Counsel Assisting also proposed that the inquiry recommend that, in urban areas, prison officers in an “intimate relationship” with each other should not be able to work in the same prison.

In submissions made on behalf of Corrective Services NSW (CSNSW), published last week, the agency reiterated “sorrow and shame” at Astill’s offending “and what was allowed to occur because of the failings of CSNSW systems and staff”.

“CSNSW reiterates its regret and unreserved apologies to the inmates, staff, and all others affected by these failings,” the submissions said.

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